Traditionally, communication modes exist as a hierarchy where face to face communication is generally the richest form of communication and email, which is asynchronous, is a much less rich type of communication. Instant messaging (“IM”) and telephone communication fits somewhere between face to face and email communications. Problems can arise when one form of communication no longer suits the needs of the communicators.
For instance, an individual might engage in an IM conversation with another person, and begin to discuss an aspect of business. As the discussion develops, the original communicators need additional information for the discussion, and add more people into the IM conversation. Soon, the IM group finds themselves discussing important and complicated business concepts. The group decides that IM is no longer the best form of communication for the situation and desires richer conversation modes, for instance, the telephone. At this point, the members of the group would have to somehow convey to each other that they desire a telephone conference. Each person would need to send his/her contact information to a conference coordinator to set up a conference call, or alternatively, an individual would need to set up a conference bridge number and send it out to all of the communicators so that they could call in and start the conference. Given the hassle of starting a conference call, the members might postpone the conversation for later or choose to remain communicating via IM when they should use a richer communication mode.